1. The Black Death
1347 and on - - -

2. Introduction Epidemic Disease
Divider betw. Central and late Middle Ages
Illustration
From the
Toggenburg
Bible, 1411

3. 3 Forms of the Disease Bubonic Plague.
painful lymph node swellings, buboes
Septicemic Plague.
also called “blood poisoning”, attacked the blood system
Pneumonic Plague.
attacked the respiratory system

4. The Bubonic Plague Painful lymph node swelling, called buboes
In groins and armpits
Oozing pus and blood
Damage to the skin and underlying tissue
Dark blotches = acral necrosis  Black Death!

5. The Bubonic Plague A plague victim reveals the telltale buboe on
his leg. From a 14th
Century illumination.

6. Symptoms of the bubonic Plague
Swellings “egg  apple”
Fever of degrees F
Headaches and Aching joints
Nausea and vomiting (of blood)
General feeling of malaise
Swellings expanding until they burst  death following soon after
Whole process: 3-5 days
NB: People who didn’t develop swellings invariably died. People with swellings might have a chance.
Mortality Rate: %
If 40% of population was getting infected, and 80% of them died = mortality rate of 32%

7. The Pneumonic Plague
Second most commonly seen form of the Black Death

8. The Rat Flea The flea drinks rat’s blood
The bacteria multiplies inside the flea
The flea’s stomach is blocked
The flea is very hungry
The flea voraciously bites a host = a human
The flea is unable to satisfy its hunger
The flea continues to feed
Infected blood carrying the plague bacteria is flowing into the human’s wound
The rat dies
The flea dies of starvation
The human dies
The Rat Flea

9. The Path of the Plague Erupted in Gobi Desert, late 1320’s
Epidemic in Europe in 6th century but dormant since then
Reached the shores of Italy in 1348
Spread in every direction, primarily westward
Lasted 3 years

11. The Path of the Plague Traveled on trade routes and caravans
Generally from south to north
And east to west
Passing through
Italy
France
England
Germany
Denmark
Sweden
Poland
Finland
Greenland

12. Preexisting Conditions
War – Civil War in China
Little Ice Age at beg. Of 13th century
The Great Famine in Northern Europe
Typhoid Epidemic
Pestilence, maybe anthrax, hit the animals of Europe in 1318
Unemployment, famine, disease

13. The Path of the Plague
The progress of the plague coincides with the medieval trade routes
Iceland, North Finland, and North Sweden had no plague
Norway 1348 (Oslo, Bergen)
Denmark 1348, from Jutland to the islands, and then on to Sweden

14. Recurrences Every 5-7 years
Next plague: 1360 = The Pest of the Children
Italian Plague
Great Plague of Vienna in 1679
Great Plague of London – one of the last major outbreaks
Resembles modern day Ebola

15. Efforts to Stop the Plague
Cities were hardest hit
Isolation – healthy and sick
Quarantine
Isolation of incoming ships
Here: a reproduction of a peasant’s hovel

16. Efforts to stop the Plague
Scents - incense and aromatic oils
Sound – church bells
Sound – cannons
Talismans
Here: burial in coffins

17. Efforts to stop the Plague
Quarantine was the best method
Avoiding the sick
The wealthy fled to the countryside (Isaac Newton)
Pope Clement VI in Avignon sat between two large fires to breathe pure air. The plague bacillus is destroyed by heat, so this worked!

18. Consequences for Populations
Approx. 25 million deaths in Europe
Between one third and one half of European population died
25% of villages depopulated
45-75% of Florence died in one year
In Venice, 60% died over 18 months

19. Consequences for Population
Urban populations recovered quickly
Rural populations recovered slowly
Friars took a couple of generations to recover
Pre-plague population reached in the 1500s or 1600s
Later period of Middle Ages was characterized by chronically reduced population

20. Consequences for Population
1348:
Gaza: dead
Aleppo: 500 dead per day
Damascus: 1000 dead per day
Syria: total of dead
Lower mortality rate in the Middle East of less than one third of population

21. Economic Consequences
Shortage of laborers rising wages for peasants and artisans
Valuable artisan skills disappeared
Oversupply of goods  prices dropped
For the living, standard of living rose!
Landlords stopped freeing their serfs serfs revolting and leaving the land
The oppressed demanded fairer treatment

22. Economic Consequences
The great equalizer
Lack of sufficient law enforcement personnel
Promoted lawlessness
People tried their luck

23. Religious Consequences
Persecutions of the Jews – scapegoats
Massacres and burnings
By 1351, 60 major and 150 smaller Jewish communities had been exterminated
Lepers were also targeted
Jews expelled, moved to Poland & Lithuania

24. Religious Consequences
Church lost prestige, spiritual authority, leadership
Promised cures, treatment, and explanations
No answers to the people
Revolt against the church
Severe shortage of clergy – functioned as nurses and consequently died.
The church targeted the Jews for persecution – had killed Jesus and brought sin to the world

25. Music and Art Culture turned morbid
Sense of death – impending & inevitable
Death is a game, like chess!
Dance of death – death is random
Everyone suffered
Despair

26. Music and Art
Danse Macabre = the dance of death: skeletons mingling with the living (here: Hans Holbein the Younger)
Shocking juxtapositions
Written language almost lost
Coffins had pictures of corpses on the lid
New creativity in motives

27. The Children Ring a-round the rosy = rosary beads give you God’s help
Pocket full of posies = used to stop the odor of rotting bodies through to cause the plague
Ashes, ashes! = the church burned the dead when burying became too laborious
We all fall down! = dead
Children suffered mentally and physically
Children were not thought worth the trouble to raise!

28. And Now? The bubonic Plague still exists
Quite common among rodent populations
A cure is known today – but the disease moves very quickly
The Plague is still with us
Hythe Ossuary, remains of victims of the Black Death